


Flow My Tears

by dareloth



Category: Inception (2010)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Kink Meme, Romance, Sexual Content, Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-13
Updated: 2014-06-13
Packaged: 2018-02-04 12:45:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1779598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dareloth/pseuds/dareloth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yusuf knows it's not reality. She needs convincing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Flow My Tears

**Author's Note:**

> _Section titles are taken from T.S. Eliot's 'The Waste Land'. The title is a reference to John Dowland's lute piece, titled the same (which can be listened to[here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9HKl8H0PWg)._

  
**i. the burial of the dead**  
 

He didn’t know where he was going. He had washed upon the shore of a desert, which troubled his mind and made him clutch his makeshift totem. He had come with them on a whim, using his small, porcelain cat token be his guide through this strange new world. Yusuf fumbled with his sopping trousers and clutched the small object in his hands, wetting his lips and taking in his surroundings.  
  
(  _what the hell are you doing here? you don’t belong here, she doesn’t want to see you_  )  
  
Doubt rang through his ears, but he dragged sand through his hands and trembled as a chill whipped through the endless scape of nothingness. Buildings, half-finished and crumbling from neglect, were all around him. He blanched and faltered and trembled against the wind and the sand blowing across his face, inhaling deeply and willing himself to wake up.  
  
But Yusuf knew better. He had to find her.

**ii. a game of chess**

  
_Have you come for me?_  
  
Yusuf had traversed the desert and come to a poor mock-up of the French quarter of Louisiana. Projections passed them by, though the two of them paid little mind to them, their fingers linked together across the chess table.  _Of course I have_ , he responded, but there was an unspoken, negative connotation to his words.   
  
 _We need to go_ , he mumbled, but she merely looked at him with a quirked brow, fiddling with her bishop in her hand. Ariadne rolled her chess piece between her nimble fingers and lifted her shoulders in a shrug, nose upturned at the thought of leaving her creation behind.  
  
 _Not yet_ , she relented, and Yusuf took that for what it was worth. He moved his pawn and reached for her hand again-- he had lost track of how many days he had tried to coax her back to the land of the living. She had moved him through her fantasy and buildings and sprawling landscapes and each time he mentioned her waking up, Ariadne gave him the most withering look she could muster.  
  
Yusuf leaned across the small table and kissed her upon her button nose, eyes fixed on hers. The silence rang through the city-scape as the projections milled to wherever they thought they needed to be. She moved her rook, and he glanced down at their board.  _Checkmate_ , he murmured, countering with his knight.  
  
 _Hurry up, please_ , he urged quietly, pressing his lips against hers. Ariadne said nothing, eyes fixed upon her fault on the chess board.  _We’re running out of time._

**iii. the fire sermon**

  
_Don’t you remember us?_  
  
She looked toward him impassively. Ariadne returned her gaze to her feet and lifted her shoulders into a shrug. When he had first found her, she had given him the most quizzical look, as though he were a foreigner asking for directions. There were days where he believed she was the self-same Ariadne that was sleeping next to him somewhere above them, but there were nights like this where he knew she had changed.  
  
 _Remember what_? Ariadne parroted, and he threatened to break. Yusuf reached into his pocket and fumbled with the porcelain figure there, eyes wide and brown and full of an emotion he could not place. This was limbo, he reminded himself. He had no place in her world full of poor recreations of Arthur and Eames and occasionally Cobb, but he was here to reel her mind in and bring her back with him. He would not leave without her.  
  
 _Us_ , he repeated. Yusuf met her eyes and inhaled quietly, lifting his shoulders and touching her fingers. He threaded them together with care, pulling her toward him.  _Us, Ariadne. You are too lovely for me, sometimes. But I have loved you and you have loved me_ , he mumbled, broad thumb stroking over her knuckles.  
  
(  _we’re running out of time, tick tock, we have to return_  )  
  
But he tried not to trouble himself with thoughts of the necessary kick, moving to wind his fingers through her hair. Yusuf knew that she was real, and though this was not, it did not matter. She was lovely and here and had all the proportions of the Ariadne miles above him.  
  
It was impulsive, perhaps, and he knew it could have consequences, but Yusuf pressed his lips against her. His free hand cupped the curve of her hips as his tongue licked into his mouth, and if he closed his eyes, he could pretend that this was real. She responded slowly, as though she were waking from a slumber, but it felt the same when she pressed her small body against his, pressing her thumbs just before his ears as she allowed him to plunder her mouth.  
  
(  _no, no, no, i can no longer see myself, she had said to him, and had blamed her need to stay in limbo on a path of self-discovery_  )  
  
All paths lead back to him and his hands running the length of her spine, making her shudder in an all-too familiar way.  _Do you remember us_? he repeated, and his voice was desperate as he nudged her toward their bed, pressing the backs of her thighs against the mattress.  _Do you remember us, up there_?  
  
Ariadne keened and shuddered and begged for more, hands threading through his curls as his lips traced a path from her jaw to her collarbone.  _We’re running out of time, Ariadne_ , he mumbled, but it was nonsense to both of their ears as he pulled her blouse over her head, unbuttoning his own shirt with smooth motions.   
  
Yusuf looked down at her, and saw the familiar flush crawling across her abdomen, the red color that told him she was alive and here and real, and it was all he needed. His fingertips tickled beneath her jaw as he fell next to her, pulling her into an embrace to end the world, his lips attacking hers and finding each angle that she liked thoroughly. As up above, Ariadne tilted her head to the left when she kissed him, and Yusuf craned his to the right to counter, broad palm pressed against her hip.  
  
 _I need you_ , Yusuf breathed against her jaw, but he needed her away from here. With care, he unbuttoned her jeans and slid them over her hip, hand passing over her with a ghost’s touch. She whined and begged for him to  _hurry, hurry_  
  
(  _do you remember us?_  )  
  
and he complied, peeling her panties along with her jeans. Gently, carefully, he slid a finger inside of her as he fumbled with his own belt, mindful of her responses and the breathless words she was murmuring against his ear. Her cry was the same when another finger joined the first and his thumb brushed over her clit, his lips pressing tender kisses along her breasts.  
  
(  _do you remember us, ariadne? please please please_  )  
  
But Yusuf could not take it anymore. He kicked off his socks and trousers, removing his hand from her despite her protests. With shaking hands, he pushed his boxers down, urging her further up the bed before nestling between her thighs. He braced his hands on either side of her neck, wanting to weep at the sight of her.  
  
He pressed against her before sliding inside her, groaning and attempting to control the desperate thrusts that threatened to take hold of his hips.  _Do you remember this_? Yusuf whispered, and she wound her small arms around his neck, lifting her hips and begging him to keep going.  
  
(  _burning burning burning_  )  
  
It was nothing short of making love. Yusuf moved against her with lazy thrusts, and the two of them shared long kisses he could drown in. He was careful to tilt her hips and moan her name, bodies sliding against each other the cautious ways that lovers had.   
  
It took nothing more than his hand brushing against her clit for her to come apart, and his world went hazy as he spilled inside her, heart pounding in his ears from exertion and his love for the small girl beneath him. Yusuf remained within her, stroking her neck and murmuring against her collarbone in Hindi, and he wept despite himself.  
  
Her nimble fingers combed through his hair, and Ariadne whispered that she had missed him, lips ghosting across his ear.  Her fingertips traced his neck, his back his arms, memorizing him, grasping him close as though she were afraid he would simply fly away from her.  
  
 _I’m sorry, Yusuf. I thought... you were my projection_ , she confessed, and he relented, pulling away enough to pull her small form into his arms.  _But you’ve come to save me._

  
**iv. death by water**   
  


_We have to jump._  
  
The two stood on the precipice of a building, one that seemed thousands of miles away from the ground. Rain poured upon them in torrents, and the drops mingled with the tears streaming down her face. Though Ariadne knew this was not real, as she once thought it was, she did not want to leave it anymore.  
  
 _We could build together._  
  
But they could not. He gripped her wrist with a gentle touch, leaning forward to kiss her forehead. Three weeks down here, and he had no idea how long Cobb had been watching the two of them. He couldn’t add anymore.  _No_ , Ariadne, he responded firmly, and with that, he tugged her down, down, down with him, and  
  
(  _entering the whirlpool_  )

**v. what the thunder said**

  
He woke with a start, blinking upward into Eames’ curious gaze.  _Looks like he’s back_ , said the forger with a broad grin, and Yusuf withered under the force.  
  
 _Ariadne_? Arthur asked, touching her shoulders. She looked bleary and confused about her surroundings, and she fumbled with the totem in her pocket.  _Ariadne, you’re back_ , Arthur said with a weak smile, pulling her into a hug.  
  
Yusuf gingerly pulled the wires from his arm, relieved that they had come back with no difficulty. Mindful of Arthur, he wanted for the man to pull away to wrap his arms around his little Architect, an embrace she gladly returned.  
  
(  _here is no water but only rock, only rock, i am your rock_ )  
  
 _We’re back_ , she murmured against his ear, and Yusuf pulled back, drowning her in his kiss.  
  
(  _we who were once dying are now living_  )


End file.
